The World of Sophia Sinclair

What do Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul have to do with my books? Not very much, honestly, except I am always hoping they'll decide to do a sequel that explores the life of Walt Jr. But we all love a good spin-off, don't we?  That's why I'm writing a spin-off series that takes up right where the Small-Town Secrets ends. The new series, Babies and Brides , focuses on some of the younger residents of good old Fairview, the sweet little small town where the first series too place. You already know all the hang-outs in Fairview. If you were magically dropped in, you'd know where to order a pizza (Sorrentino's, of course) and where to get the best ice cream (Remy's). And would you order a drink anywhere but at The Clipper? Heck no. This series launches with Claiming Haley . You may remember her from Crazy Little Thing and Laws of Attraction . She appeared in both. Now we learn her back story, and you've probably already deduced by the series name that t...

If you've ever given birth, there's a decent chance you now have stretch marks. There's also a decent chance you're not thrilled about this. But I'm here to say we need to try to think a new way about our stretch marks. I have so many stretch marks. My babies were large — my son weighed 10 pounds even! Ouch!  For many years, I was too upset about my stretch marks to show them to anyone. I felt embarrassed by them and always wore a one-piece bathing suit. The thought of any man but my husband seeing them was terrifying to me! Part of what made me so embarrassed was the way he spoke about my stretch marks. When he decided he wanted a divorce, he told me my stretch marks looked so bad that if I were dead on the side of the road, a vulture wouldn't touch my stomach. He had a few other choice things to say about my stretch marks, too.  In time, I dated plenty of other men who didn't have a problem with my stretch marks. They knew I was a mom and they k...

One of the final issues. (Courtesy of Zoe York) I want to tell you a story. It’s about a crazy coincidence that allowed me to tell someone how much her late mother improved how I parent. And if I follow the daughter’s advice, she just might improve how I write. It started yesterday, when a fellow romance author recommended a book called Romance Your Brand: Building A Marketable Genre Fiction Series by Zoe York . The suggestion was timely; I’m in the early stages of planning a new romance series with the accidental pregnancy/secret baby tropes. I want to make it rain babies in my mythical town of Fairview, but I also want to make sure people find and love these books. I love babies, birth and breastfeeding so much I once considered becoming a midwife or doula. I love books so much that there’s seldom been a time in my life when I haven’t been reading or writing one. Problem is, my first small-town romance series ( The Small-Town Secrets ) has garnered strong reviews and enthusiasm but ...

Lots of news in the Sophia Sinclair world, but here are the two I want to talk about today. First of all, I'd like everyone to meet Cashew! She is a three-legged senior beagle mix I adopted from my local animal shelter recently. She's very, very sweet and hangs out with me on the futon in my office while I write. She thinks the dog in Worth the Wait should have been a larger part of the story. Everyone's a critic. Second, I'm still giving away free prequels (click here to download!) to the Small-Town Secrets series. This is Happily Ever After All, and it's about an older lady from the early days in Fairview, reminiscing about her life. Here's a line or two from Carol Ann's remembrance of her first time, just to whet your appetite. This part of the story takes place about a week before her wedding, when she and her soon-to-be husband were painting the house they would move into after returning from their honeymoon: She had always imagined her first tim...

Sometimes I cry when a good book ends. If I love the characters, I don't want to say goodbye forever. That's why I bring my characters back again and again in subsequent books. The main character in one book often shows up with a new baby in a later book. Each book features a different couple, and we follow them as they work to find their own Happily Ever After. I am so sure that you will love this series that I decided to write a prequel and give it to you free! All you need to do is click here , and it will send you to the page where you can download the book. It's the story of Carol Ann, the matriarch of Fairview, and it serves as an introduction to the little town where all the Small-Town Secrets are set. I recommend you make yourself a good cup of coffee (you'll know why I say that when you get into the book!), tuck yourself into a cozy spot and get ready for a happily ever after. Let me know what you think!

It's the Deal of a Lifetime! OK, that's a lie. It's a pretty good deal, but probably not the deal of a lifetime.  But if you love to read, do sign up for authors' newsletters. Not just mine, but everyone's.  Most authors today do have a newsletter, and we typically offer you a deal: You give me your email address, and in return I will give you things like a free prequel to my current series, or a discount, or a chance to win a gift card, or perhaps just heads up on new releases.  Why are authors anxious to have you subscribe to our newsletters? For the same reason we write blogs and post frequently to social media: It is no longer enough just to write books. Back in the good old days, that was all we had to write. Just books. It must have been nice. But today, we have to hustle hard. Millions of books are published each year. Some are dreadful. Some are wonderful. Some books, which are exactly what you love to read, you'll never see. It's hard for authors to...

All Men Fart If you're in a relationship, you might compare yours with the ones in your favorite romance novels.  But doing that is very much like comparing your life to the lives of others on social media. You know what I'm talking about. Your friend confides in you that her marriage is on rocky ground, but her social media shows them on vacation, having fabulous meals, adorably playing with their toddler, whatever. She does not post pics and video of one of them crying or slamming doors or sleeping on the sofa. We all know that people's social media is not an accurate reflection of what their daily lives are. How many times have you cropped a photo to avoid the basket of unfolded laundry or the messy coffee table before posting the pic on your social media? Anybody would assume your house is always neat and tidy and maybe it is, but mine isn't. I only wish my house was as put together as it usually appears on my social media. Similarly, in Romance Land, you see a spec...

  Read the book that started it all! All the books in the Small-Town Secrets can stand alone, but like peanut butter and jelly, they are better together. When you read the books in order, you'll really get to know Fairview. You'll learn the best place for pizza (Sorrentino's, of course!) and where to go to get a drink (The Clipper, obviously!)   You'll get to know the characters well, because people you meet in an earlier book will pop right up in later books. You'll meet their children, who grow up as the series progresses.  The first book is all about Molly, the library director at the Fairview Public Library, a hard-working single mom who isn't even looking for a relationship until a sexy stranger with a compelling back story walks into her library. He's smitten immediately, probably because he saw a bit more than she intended when she climbed the ladder to put away a book on the top shelf. Oops. The great thing about Fairview? There are no presidential p...

Waiting For The Big Time There are a handful of authors out there who make the big bucks. Everybody loves their books. I'd go hungry if necessary to buy the hardback of Diana Gabaldon's latest, to give one example.  But there are thousands of fantastic books written every year that go unread. What do authors do to try to get noticed? We give our work away. It's what creative people do, I'm afraid, because the same thing is true of singers, artists and photographers. While nobody ever asks insurance salespeople or doctors or lawn care company owners or roofers to give away their work, it's just accepted that creative people will give it up for free. And you know what? We absolutely will, because we all hope that eventually, if enough people read our book/listen to our songs/look at our paintings, we will eventually have enough fans that we can make a living with our art.  That might not be true of most of us, but dreams die hard. So here's the deal: I need people...

Now It's Ashley's Turn If you've been reading the Small-Town Secrets series, you've "met" Ashley a number of times. She's everyone's favorite bartender at The Clipper, and she knows everything that's going on in town. But her own plans have been a big secret. That's about to change: Ashley Butler is everyone’s favorite bartender at The Clipper. She’s seemingly always there to remember your favorite drink and offer a sympathetic ear. But Ashley has plans that go far beyond bartending. She has been quietly working on a major project for years, and she’s just about to make her move. When wealthy developer Maxwell Bishop makes a stop at The Clipper, he’s utterly captivated by the beautiful, intelligent, self-assured woman behind the bar. When he accidentally throws a monkey wrench into her plans, he tries to make it up to her. Ashley accepts his offer and their attraction heats up, but they are from such different worlds. She was raised by a poor s...

Enjoy your visit to Fairview It’s the sort of place you’ve driven through countless times. Just another small town. The local dive bar does a good business. The old downtown is struggling, but a few brave entrepreneurs have opened cute little coffee shops or boutiques a few shuttered storefronts down from the local businesses your parents tell you have been there as long as they can remember. There’s a library and a small hospital, which still hangs on even though a lot of people will drive to a bigger hospital in the next city if something is really wrong.  Houses are known as “the old Williams house” or “where Joe Fisher used to live” even though two other families might have lived there since the last Williams or Fisher passed away or moved on. If you go to the local cemetery, you’ll see the same last names over and over again. It’s a place where families stay for generations, although that’s starting to change now. Maybe you grew up in such a place. If you did, you know there’s...

Here's the new cover for Kiss and Tell. It tells the story of Lori and Jake. We met Lori in Worth the Wait, where she was Molly's best friend: Lori is a beautiful nurse who is never seen without perfect hair and makeup. But nobody has ever fallen in love with her, and she’s starting to worry that nobody ever will.  She is powerfully affected by a tragedy in the ER one night. It’s time, she realizes, to stop waiting around for a man and to embrace the single life. She starts with buying her first house. Enter the gorgeous but seemingly shallow real estate agent, Jake, who has the nerve to hit her up for business even as she’s caring for his injury. Their attraction is undeniable, but Lori is determined to avoid getting entangled with the wrong sort. So is Jake. Soon, but not soon enough, they realize how badly they have misjudged each other. Is their love and passion strong enough to overcome hurt feelings and misunderstandings? Kiss and Tell is racier than Worth the Wait, becau...

  This new cover was "Worth the Wait"!  Writing well isn't enough. The world is full of great books nobody ever reads. If I had known, when I started writing the Small-Town Secrets series, how much I would need to learn about formatting, graphic design and promotion, I'd never have attempted it. But here I am, with fresh new covers coming and a new book out very soon! This cover is for the first book in the series. I'll share the others soon. It's worth noting that I had the same feeling after becoming the editor of my small town's daily newspaper many years ago. That job had so much responsibility and required so many different skills. Not just writing and editing but managing a staff and keeping to a budget, dealing with union issues, placating angry subscribers ... I felt just the same with that job. "If I had known it was going to be this hard, I'd have been afraid to have accepted the job." But I managed to develop every skill necessary....

When I was a child, adults accused me of always being in my own little world because I was always daydreaming. Was that supposed to be an insult? I didn't take it as one. Now I have a little world where others can join me: the little town of Fairview, the setting of the Small-Town Secrets series. A collection of unforgettable characters fills these small-town romance novels. Each book builds on the previous one. We meet new characters in every book, but we always go back and revisit past characters and catch up on what's been happening in their lives. The whole series can be experienced as the world's longest romantic movie. We start with Worth the Wait, where we first meet Molly. She's a single mother who is raising her three children alone on a librarian's salary when one day a man whose relatives were murdered decades ago shows up, intending to take up residence and solve the murder. He just happens to be gorgeous, charming and smitten with Molly. In Kiss and Tel...